21 charged in scheme to defraud NY car dealerships

By: The Associated Press December 2, 2011Comments Off on 21 charged in scheme to defraud NY car dealerships

Members of a New York City auto crime ring busted this week bribed people into applying for expensive automobile loans for Cadillacs, Porsches and other luxury cars, then defaulted on millions of dollars and sold the cars on the black market.

One of the 50 cars wrongly procured, a Porsche, was used to dump the body of one of two victims shot in 2009 inside the Long Island condo belonging to pro football player Jonathan Vilma, authorities said.

Prosecutors believe the victims were attempting to scam three men and were kidnapped in retaliation and shot at Vilma’s condo in Woodbury, N.Y. The NFL player had no role in the killings and didn’t live in the home at the time, authorities said. He had already been traded from the New York Jets to the New Orleans Saints.

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said one of the victims was driven in the Porsche to a dumping ground, but was still alive when the suspects opened the hatch and was shot again inside the vehicle.

Andre Dickenson, charged with murder in May in the killing of the men, is also the main suspect in the auto fraud ring, police said Thursday. Dickenson was charged with enterprise corruption and other crimes, said Queens District Attorney Richard Brown. His attorney didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment.

Kelly said the schemers would go to acquaintances and offer them about $1,500 in cash plus other kickbacks to go to dealerships and sign up for a new car and loan. The cars were then handed over to the ring, and the loans were never paid. Credit was ruined for people who applied for the loans. Some of them knew the risks, others did not, police said. In total, about $1.9 million was scammed, authorities said.

In Dickenson’s ring, the cars were bought and then resold on the black market or rented until they were impounded, authorities said.

In a second separate ring also busted recently, loans were taken, but nothing actually purchased, and nothing repaid. Brown said more than $180,000 was obtained in fraudulent loan funds.